The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were courted for the show last season and former coach Raheem Morris was lobbying for his team to be on the show. Ultimately, the Bucs declined.

This smelled all wrong to Joe based on Joe’s knowledge of the Bucs and Hard Knocks, and Joe has re-confirmed that, in fact, Raheem was dead set against his yungry bunch landing on Hard Knocks last season. Raheem himself spilled an explanation last year during an interview with the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, on WDAE-AM 620.

“For us it was more about the first time we may get with our players could have been with full-fledged cameras in our face,”Raheem said. “And also, it could have been my first time seeing my team since [the lockout] or talking to them. And no matter what you might say, the guys shy away from you with a microphone on you.

“The one thing I didn’t want to do was push Mike Williams away from me, or push LeGarrette Blount or even Josh Freeman because those guys don’t necessarily don’t want to be on the camera.”

Raheem loved to call himself an “entertainer,” but even Ray Charles could have seen that putting the young Bucs on Hard Knocks last year was a bad idea and could have hurt the great chemistry coming off a 10-6 season in 2010.

We can blast ESPN all we want, but guess what ? My Son is out there watching it as we speak, and watches it every morning. In fact, my 73 inch Mitsubishi HDTV is always tuned to ESPN it seems, or the NFL Network.
Sure they screw up sometimes, but people watch them anyway.